Roundup: African-American Anti-Abortion Billboards Come to…Wisconsin?

When I think of Wisconsin, I know I always think of three thing: cheese, the Packers, and the genocide of black babies. Which is why it makes perfect sense that Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the next frontier for Radiance Foundation’s African American anti-abortion billboard campaign. Because if any city in the country more closely resembles Atlanta geographically, it’s Milwaukee.

A pro-life group in Wisconsin and an organization run by a black pro-life advocate have teamed up for the latest in what has become a national campaign to focus on how abortion targets black children.

The Radiance Foundation, along with Pro-Life Wisconsin, is launching the TooManyAborted.com campaign in Wisconsin featuring 13 billboards going up in Milwaukee with two different messages.

On the heels of massive national and international media coverage of the “Endangered Species” campaign, featuring billboards throughout Atlanta, Georgia and the rest of the state, the new billboards present residents of Wisconsin’s largest city with the message “Black Children Are In Danger” and “Black & Beautiful.”

But both Radiance and their local partner for the campaign, Pro-Life Wisconsin, are actually using the partnership as another attempt to attack their favorite nemesis, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.

“This campaign is our response to Planned Parenthood — whose 75 years of existence in Wisconsin continues to embrace the racist and eugenic idea that certain human life can be destroyed. And they do it for profit,” he said. “Wisconsin is the birthplace of the Republican Party, founded solely to abolish the inhumanity and destruction of slavery. We hope that something will stir Wisconsinites to see, regardless of political party, that liberation and justice are part of their historical DNA.”

“Planned Parenthood profits, immensely, from deliberate deception—that ‘unplanned’ means ‘unwanted and unloved’ and therefore should be destroyed. This campaign coincides with a holiday season in which most Americans celebrate the ultimate unplanned pregnancy, a courageous teenage mother, and a compassionate father who chose adoption instead of abandonment,” Bomberger explained.

Pro-Life Wisconsin goes even further, stating that Planned Parenthood is the cause of both unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections in the state. Via Cap Times:

In the press release, [Virginia] Zignego, [communications director of Pro-Life Wisconsin] charges Planned Parenthood with “the brutal killing of innocent unborn children” and a “massive failure” to reverse the African-American community’s high rates of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

…

Last year, after a fiery public debate, state legislators passed a law requiring schools to provide more comprehensive sexual education in schools. Now that the Republicans have wrested control of all branches of state government away from Democrats, could the billboards be some of the first signs of a stepped-up campaign to dismantle not just abortion rights but sex education?

There’s a lot of irony in Pro-Life Wisconsin calling out Planned Parenthood for “failing” to reverse the African American community’s rate of STIs and unwanted pregnancies. The two largest initiatives pushed in the state in the last few years were comprehensive sex ed in classrooms, and free or low cost birth control for low income women, both of which have been adamantly opposed by the anti-choice action group.

… the Christian Patriarchy Movement, a branch of evangelical Christianity that takes beliefs about men as leaders and women as homemakers to anachronistic extremes.

The numbers, currently, are not populous, but unlike other Extreme Patriarchy religions, the movement is less “closed off” & could mainstream via “already-booming” right-wing Xtain communities, who already have “women should be submissive” teachings, though not this extreme.

julie-watkins

“NYC Tests Brakes on Crisis Pregnancy Centers”:

I noticed each and every witness opposing the bill used the word “girl” when referring to the clients they served. Never teens or women. Always girls. The priest, the clinic operators, the staff, the volunteers. This could reflect a core belief that their clients were children, regardless of their ages, in need of protection and strong guidance to make decisions about their fertility and their futures.

This is a large difference from the pro-choice side, which argues that reproductive rights are a critical element of female autonomy and always used the term “pregnant women.”